Grey's Anatomy: Mama Tried (12x22)

This is so frustrating. How do you judge an episode that's based around a premise so flimsy that it collapses under the smallest amount of critical thinking? If I could only erase from my mind how contrived this whole damn custody trial is, then maybe I could judge this a little more kindly. But I can't. And I'm annoyed.

Cons:

The whole premise. Like I just said, this whole premise is just weak as hell. Through all the drama, and all the arguments about which parent is better, and which one spends more time with Sofia, all I'm thinking is that this entire idea is based on exactly zero critical thought. Callie and Arizona are supposed to be smart. How on earth did they let something like this happen? On top of that, this show spends so little time focusing on the kids that it sort of comes out of nowhere when everybody starts talking about how motherhood is their defining state of being. If we knew these kids better, and understood these women better in their roles as mothers, that would be a different story.

The majority of the plot was just going through the custody case. But there was a subplot that tied in to the main story, and that subplot focused on Jenny, the fourteen-year-old pregnant girl that we met a few weeks back. Her baby is in distress, and Alex has to call Arizona away from court to come and help, because Dr. Russo, another pediatric surgeon, is apparently some sort of evil monster and refuses to listen to any reasonable plan to keep the baby inside the womb so it has a better chance. This was a pretty contrived way to get Arizona to walk away from the court case. It's another example of contrived circumstances playing out in a well-constructed way. I'll talk in a minute about the result of Arizona leaving court so abruptly, but the reasoning for it was pretty darn weak.

There were a few other tiny subplot-ish things in this episode, and Stephanie's seemed really out of place. She feels bad about dumping Kyle and wonders if it was a mistake. In the end, Kyle is brought into the hospital again, sick, and he doesn't want anything to do with Stephanie. I don't have a problem with this subplot exactly, but it didn't tie in to the themes in the rest of the episode, which all centered around motherhood. It might have been better suited for next week's episode.

Pros:

The other tiny subplot was April and Jackson's. They sit down and work out a schedule about the baby. April gets Easter, Jackson gets the Super Bowl and Halloween, and they will trade off Christmases. In contrast to the custody battle going on between Callie and Arizona, these two handle the whole situation with great maturity and respect for one another. I hope they keep it up, because honestly watching them decide to be good co-parents is much more compelling than watching them argue.

While the premise in the main plot is weak as hell, the acting was pretty amazing. I guess I should finally give the big spoiler: Arizona is granted full custody. Honestly, if we had to have this dumb plot, this is the only way it should turn out. Callie is the one trying to derail everybody's lives here. And Callie and her lawyer said some nasty, awful stuff about Arizona, basically slut shaming her and saying that because she has a lot of emergency surgeries she can't be a good mom to her kid. It was brutal, and it made me very disgusted with Callie. There's this moment when the two of them are waiting on a bench to find out the results, and Callie tries to make peace by saying that she knows Arizona is a good mom. Arizona shuts her down, saying that she never would have let anybody attack Callie the way that Callie had let Arizona be attacked.

Basically, Arizona's story is meant to parallel the story of King Solomon and the baby being torn in half. While on the stand, Arizona gets a call. She has to choose between staying in court or rushing off to the hospital to save a life. She says that she loves Sofia and wants to be with her, but she knows that no matter what happens, Sofia will be okay. She will be loved and supported and she will survive. But if Arizona doesn't get to the hospital, there is a child who won't make it. This was a beautiful speech, even if the justification for why she needed to rush off to the hospital was a little thin from a writing perspective. Honestly, I totally buy that Arizona will be a better mother for Sofia right now. Callie is acting irrationally when she talks about uprooting her child from an already broken home situation.

Another element I really appreciated about this episode was how everybody else rallied around their friends. Sure, some people sort of took sides. Meredith was there for Callie, supporting her when she lost custody and holding her as she cried. But she didn't make Arizona into the villain. She didn't say anything horrible about her on the stand. Nobody really did say anything horrible about anybody else. Bailey supported Arizona without being harsh to Callie. Owen said complimentary things about Callie without ever making a disparaging remark against Arizona. The only cruel things that were said were said by the lawyers, in particular Callie's attorney. All of these people are friends with Callie and Arizona, and they all had something to celebrate and something to mourn when the decision came down.

Although Callie didn't do much to win my support this week, I did love the scene where she and Meredith talked about Mark. He doesn't get enough attention, and it was nice to hear his name come up. Of course Callie would be thinking of the father of her child during a time like this. I miss Mark!

I guess that's all I've got. This episode is disappointing because the entire basis on which it rests is flimsy and nonsensical. Within that framework, however, I did admire the acting choices, and I'm glad Arizona won. If somebody had to lose custody, I guess it makes sense that it would be Callie. And hey, it's a win for the idea of non-biological parents having just as many rights. A final note? Bailey raised an objection while on the stand. And it was hilarious. She would have made a good lawyer!

5.5/10